Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Turkey has great gum producers. Although some of the companies that existed in the past have disappeared (either taken over by a larger international group, or just closed down) there is still a huge production of all types of gum in the country. Also gum base is supplied by Turkish manufacturers.

ILHAM SWEETS (www.ilhamsweets.com) is one of these chewing and bubble gum producers which covers a broad range of presentations and formats. From Bubble gum filled with fizzy powder or liquid, to gum balls with many different shapes and sugarfree chewing gum presented in blisters or in plastic bottles. The company covers many flavours (including extrem sour, cola, cinnamon,…) and funny shapes (like basketball, tennis balls, rugby, football, golf, …). I find specially interesting the gum balls coated with “pearl effect”. I leave you some pictures.

Another Turkish exhibitor, this one from Istambul, who presents gum. In this case the sometimes forgotten BUBBLE GUM.

In this blog I discuss many times about functional gum, stylish chewing gum with exzcellent designs, sophisticated products and innovations but I do not get many chance to talk about the gum that we all liked to chew when we were kids: the bubble gum. Even better when it comes with a sticker in it! It seems that this type of product (sometimes called “Bazooka style” because that was the first famous brand offering the format) is not interesting or trendy anymore. It is true that market figures have been showing a consistent decline of such products in Europe and North America, but it is good to remember that there are many brands in the world producing bubble gum for children and that this type still accounts for a significant share of the market.

So I am glad to talk today about PROGUM and their extensive range of bubble gums (also chewing gum), with different brands: Kango (5 chunck pack), You&me (5 chunck with tatoo), Powergum (jelly filled), Turbo (individual piece or multipack) and Safari (individual piece). You can see all their products in the link to their website. Have fun!

Another interesting company that exhibits in ISM for the second time is the Turkish “CEREMONY”.

They present sugarfree chewing gums with a very stylish and modern desing. Their main brand is “ 7 STICK” and also “CHIVITO”.

This new gum uses no aspartame, so it follows the trend of “clean label”, trying to avoid ingredients than may have a bad image in the general public. Maybe one day I should write a post about aspartame collecting all the data (positive and negative) that has been published about this intensive sweetener… and then another one about Stevia, which is quite an interesting case!

Today LKT Trading, part of the huge Latek Holding, which contains many companies in many different fields (really impressive). But the one which is of our interest is the chewing gum branch of this Holding, which includes 2 factories in Istanbul area.

The company has two main brands: “Happy Gum”, which is the “chewing gum part” and consists of dragees and sticks presented in different packagings (plastic bottles, flip top boxes….), and “Gum Babol” which is the “bubble gum part” and has cut & wrap products in multipack presentation. The new launch for ISM was a HAPPY GUM sugar free presented in an envelop and with 6 different flavors.

According to Euromonitor, Sugarfree chewing gum accounts for 72% in volume of the total gum sold in Turkey in 2011. The trend, of course is for positive growth of this segment,a s products become more and more sophisticated.

This company was founded in 1996, has 4 factories in Istanbul and about 1000 employees. It is owned by Mr Subet. Its web site is www.saadet.com.tr

You will see that they produce not only chewing gum, but also jellies, marshmallow, licorice and others.

In terms of chewing gum the main brands are : NAZAR (sugafree ministick), OCEAN (dragees and sticks), PUNTO (bubble cut & wrap) and MISKET (ball). So they cover a very good range of products both chewing and bubble, both sugared and sugarfree, both coated and uncoated. There are also other brands that you can find in their website.

The big launch in ISM was NAZAR Istanbul, which is a double layer chewing gum ministick, presented in a nice envelope pack. Of course, mastic flavor is present in the products from Saadet! I attach a picture of this.

Today I will take again the review of companies that were exhibiting in ISM. We are already well into March and I am still posting about ISM!! I should speed this up… but there were so many chewing gum producers in the show that it is taking me longer than expected.

A main market for chewing gum, not only for the local products but also for the importance of exports, is Turkey.

Turkey as a country is always well represented in ISM, and we find most of their companies under the umbrella of the “Turkish Confectionery & sweet Promotion Group” www.turkishconfectionery.org

During next days I will be presenting a few turkish companies and today I will start by ERSAY. This is a company based in Istambul, where they have three factories.

The company was founded 27 years ago and employes about 50 people. You can find more at www.frutsi.com.tr It is also known as ASPAK, and they are specialized in bubble gum (cut & wrap and balls). They also produce their own gum base.

Their main brand is FRUTSI (in fact the web site I mentioned before comes under that name). This edition of ISM, Ersay introduced Sour Shox extra and watermelon coming as single ball in a flow pack. Also “love gum” which are gum balls in a flip top bad, “soccer gum”, “Turbo”, and “girls” with a sticker. Finally, it is worth to mention the “Dino”, which is a cut&wrap product with mastic flavor. I always found this flavor quite peculiar…. maybe because I am not Turkish…

More about Turkish producers tomorrow… Then we will go for the mexicans…